History Trivia / TheOfficeUS

*** Creator/MartinShort, Creator/HankAzaria and Creator/BobOdenkirk were considered for Michael Scott as well. Odenkirk actually had the role in the initial cast list submitted to the network, since first choice Carell was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with ''Come To Papa'', the sitcom he was co-starring in at the time. When the series was cancelled, Carell's schedule cleared up and he was able to commit to the show. As a DevelopmentGag, Odenkirk showed up in the final season as an [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute alarmingly Michael-esque]] boss who interviews Pam for an office job.
*** Creator/AlanTudyk, Creator/KenMarino, Creator/ThomasLennon, [[Film/{{Tammy}} Ben Falcone]], [[Film/TheSpecials Jim Zulevic]], Creator/PaulFTompkins and [[Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace Bill Chott]] also read for the role of Michael Scott before the casting of Carell.

** Idris Elba (Charles) is actually British. The character seems vaguely transatlantic, especially in terms of accent, and anyone who's seen ''Series/TheWire'' knows Elba could have done a much more convincing American accent if he'd wanted to. Charles is also an avid soccer fan.

* FandomLifeCycle: While it was one of NBC's most popular shows while it aired, Netflix led to a massive NewbieBoom, with ''The Office'' being the streaming service's most viewed show ever!

** As mentioned in Throw It In, the show allowed the cast to improvise in subsequent takes after shooting a scripted scene. But with Creator/SteveCarell being an improv master, and Michael being a character with such a unique take on things, there were many sequences where Michael had hardly any scripted lines, so Carell could cut loose (which often sent the rest of the cast into hysterics, as evidenced by the blooper reels). Michael walking around Times Square in "Valentine's Day" is a prominent example.

* NamesTheSame:
** Michael Scott was the name of a real-life medieval scholar with a posthumous reputation as a sorcerer. He even appears in the eighth circle of Dante's ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]''.
** David Wallace shares at least a first and last name with the well-known novelist and essayist Creator/DavidFosterWallace.
** Ryan Howard shares his name with baseball player Ryan Howard, who won an MVP award with the Philadelphia Phillies during the show's run. Although WordOfGod said this was coincidence, it's a little harder to believe when one finds out what team Howard played for during the show's development in 2004: the Phillies' AAA affiliate, the [=Scranton/Wilkes-Barre=] Red Barons. The baseball Howard eventually did a cameo as himself to bring it full circle.

*** Creator/AlanTudyk, Creator/KenMarino, Creator/ThomasLennon, [[Film/{{Tammy}} Ben Falcone]], [[Film/TheSpecials Jim Zulevic]], Creator/PaulFTompkins, and [[Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace Bill Chott]] also read for the role of Michael Scott before the casting of Carell.

** Creator/PaulGiamatti, Creator/JeremyPiven, and Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman were originally approached for the part of [[Characters/TheOfficeUSMichaelScott Michael Scott]] before Creator/SteveCarell was cast.
*** Creator/MartinShort, Creator/HankAzaria, and Creator/BobOdenkirk were considered for Michael Scott as well. Odenkirk actually had the role in the initial cast list submitted to the network, since first choice Carell was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with ''Come To Papa'', the sitcom he was co-starring in at the time. When the series was cancelled, Carell's schedule cleared up and he was able to commit to the show. As a DevelopmentGag, Odenkirk showed up in the final season as an [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute alarmingly Michael-esque]] boss who interviews Pam for an office job.
*** Creator/AlanTudyk, Creator/KenMarino, [[Series/Reno911 Thomas Lennon]], [[Film/{{Tammy}} Ben Falcone]], [[Film/TheSpecials Jim Zulevic]], [[Series/MrShow Paul F. Tompkins]], and [[Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace Bill Chott]] also read for the role of Michael Scott before the casting of Carell.
** Creator/JohnCho, Creator/AdamScott, and Creator/HamishLinklater auditioned for the part of Jim before the casting of Creator/JohnKrasinski. Also, Jim's last name was Nelson during the casting phase (Greg Daniels changed it to Halpert in honor of a friend). Later becomes HilariousInHindsight as Jim plays a prank on Dwight by switching places with [[Creator/RandallPark an Asian man]] and Adam Scott gets his own Jim-like role as Ben Wyatt in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''.
** Creator/AnneDudek, Creator/KathrynHahn, Creator/KristenWiig, Creator/EverCarradine, Creator/MaryLynnRajskub, and Creator/StephanieCourtney screen-tested for the role of Pam Beesly before Creator/JennaFischer was cast.
** Creator/SethRogen, Creator/PattonOswalt, Creator/MattWalsh, and [[Series/ThirtyRock Judah Friedlander]] auditioned for Dwight Schrute before the casting of Creator/RainnWilson.

** Although Creator/RickyGervais did appear on the show twice as his character David Brent from the original UK series, there had previously been plans for Creator/MackenzieCrook, Creator/MartinFreeman, and Creator/LucyDavis to reprise their roles as Gareth, Tim, and Dawn for "The Convention" in Season 3, but scheduling conflicts prevented it and Gervais, who ironically ''wasn't'' planned to appear originally, was ultimately the only one who did.

** Paul Lieberstein, 7 episodes ("Money", "Two Weeks", "Gossip", "Whistleblower", "Sex Ed", "Training Day", "The Incentive")

** Brian Baumgartner, 1 episode ("After Hours")

* WagTheDirector: Jim was supposed to kiss Cathy in the episode "After Hours", but Creator/JohnKrasinski flatly refused to go along with it, knowing that fans would consider that to be crossing a line. Krasinski has said that was the one and only time he refused to play a scene.

** Creator/JohnCho, Creator/AdamScott, and Creator/HamishLinklater auditioned for the part of Jim Halpert before the casting of Creator/JohnKrasinski. Later becomes HilariousInHindsight as Jim plays a prank on Dwight by switching places with [[Creator/RandallPark an Asian man]] and Adam Scott gets his own Jim-like role as Ben Wyatt in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''.

** Shannon Cochran played Pam's mom Helene in the second season episode "Sexual Harassment". When they decided to bring Helene back as recurring character a few years later, Cochran was busy in the national touring company of ''Theatre/AugustOsageCounty'', so Linda Purl took over the role for the rest of the series.

** Behind the camera, Seasons 3 and 4 featured famed guest directors like Creator/HaroldRamis, Creator/JossWhedon, Creator/JJAbrams and Creator/JasonReitman.

** Dwight's UsefulNotes/{{Amish}} background ultimate derives from the "Dwide Schrood" monologue, which Creator/RainnWilson originally improvised in a deleted scene for the pilot, before it was written into the script of "Drug Testing".

* ThrowItIn: Unlike many other [[{{Mockumentary}} mockumentaries]], ''The Office'' is tightly scripted. However, once a given scene has been shot as written, the actors were free to improvise on subsequent takes if they wished to do so; time permitting the actors were always allowed at least one extra take for this purpose. This was most common when shooting the TalkingHeads segments, which are typically long rambling monologues anyway. According to WordOfGod, Rainn Wilson was the most prolific improviser (which is readily apparent in the blooper reels), noting, "Rainn has never not given an alternate version." As a result, what made it to air was usually about 90% scripted, 10% improvised.

** "Finale" had a bunch of one-off examples, like Rachael Harris as Angela's sister Rachael, and new Dunder Mifflin employees Dakota (Creator/DakotaJohnson) and Malcolm (Malcolm Barrett).

** The show tried to avoid this early on to maintain a realistic tone, limiting recognizable guest stars to ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' or ''Series/TheDailyShow'' alums (Creator/TimMeadows, Creator/RobRiggle), or familiar character actors (like Ken Howard as Ed Truck). After they brought in Creator/KathyBates to play Jo Bennett, the show started doing a lot more of this, with guest turns by the likes of Creator/WillFerrell and Creator/JimCarrey.

** Ryan Howard is treated as sort of the ‘kid’ since he’s hired as a temp in the first episode, but B.J. Novak is a few months older than John Krasinski, who plays the more experienced Jim.

* QuoteSource:
** LadyInAPowerSuit
** RapidFireYes
** VerbalBusinessCard

* ActorInspiredElement: Creator/SteveCarell conceived a lot of Michael Scott's character arc, including Michael getting into a relationship with Jan Levinson, and his finally completing and screening ''Threat Level Midnight''.

* CharacterSpecificPages:
** [[Characters/TheOfficeUSMichaelScott Michael Scott]]
** [[Characters/TheOfficeUSMichaelScarn Michael Scarn]]